# witch doctor
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈwɪtʃ ˌdɒktə/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈwɪtʃ ˌdɑktɚ/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Hyphenation: witch doc‧tor

### Noun

witch doctor (plural witch doctors)
* A person (often male) who is believed to ward off witchcraft and heal through magical powers; a shaman.
** 1718, Francis Hutchinson, “The Tryal before My Lord Chief Baron Hale”, in An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft. […], London: Printed for R. Knaplock, […], and D. Midwinter, […], →OCLC, page 110:[T]he ſaid Dorothy Durent, having been with a Witch-Doctor, acknowledges upon Oath, that by his Advice, ſhe hang'd up her Child's Blanket in the Chimney, found a Toad in it at Night, had put it into the Fire, and held it there tho' it made a great and horrible Noiſe, and flaſht like Gunpowder, and went off like a Piſtol, and then became inviſible, and that by this the Priſoner was ſcorch'd and burn'd lamentably.
** 1820, J[ohn] C. Knowlson, “The Felon”, in The Complete Cow-leech, or Cattle-Doctor; […], Otley, Yorkshire: Printed for the author by T. F. Bristow, […], →OCLC, page 104:Some people are so foolish as to go to a witch-doctor when they have Cows in this complaint [prematurely parting with their unborn calves]:—they give him some money, and he tells them some frivolous tale, such as that some person that wishes them bad luck, or looks upon them with an evil eye, [...]
** 1893, South African Law Journal, volume 10, Cape Town: Juta & Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 219:At that consultation, according to the habit of a witch-doctor, he divined and announced the occasion of their attendance, and indicated the complainant, Mdungazwe, as the wizard who had caused Ranise to suffer.
** 1958 April 1, David Seville [pseudonym; Ross Bagdasarian Sr.] (lyrics and music), “Witch Doctor”, in The Alvin Show:I told the witch doctor I was in love with you / And then the witch doctor he told me what to do
** 1971, W. G. Jilek, “From Crazy Witch Doctor to Auxiliary Psychotherapist: The Changing Image of the Medicine Man”, in Psychiatria Clinica, volume 4, number 4, Basel, New York, N.Y.: S[amuel] Karger, →OCLC, abstract, page 200:Review of the literature cited in the bibliography of the present paper left this author with the impression that there is indeed a very widespread institution variously labelled by Western observers with epithets such as medicine-man, shaman, witch-doctor, native healer, or with indigenous terms such as angakok (Eskimo), or mganga (Swahili).
** 1982, Sudhir Kakar, “Other Shamans”, in Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and Its Healing Traditions, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Knopf, 2013, →ISBN:In much of popular Western literature, the non-Western professional who attends to the relief of distress and alleviation of anxiety in his society is known by many names, none of them exactly respectful. He is a medicine man or a witch doctor, native healer or voodoo sorcerer—the "quack," so to speak, never the "doctor."
** 1993, Hama Tuma, The Case of the Socialist Witchdoctor and Other Stories (African Writers Series), Oxford, Oxfordshire, Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, →ISBN, page 36:The man being led into the Cage did not strike me as a witchdoctor. Slim and tall, he was a middle-aged man with a fuzzy Afro which made him look even younger.

#### Alternative forms

* witch-doctor, witchdoctor

#### Hypernyms

* healer

#### Hyponyms

* curandero (Central America)
* dukun (Malay)
* mganga (Africa)
* ngaka (Sotho)
* obeah (Africa, Caribbean)
* sadet (Jarai (Vietnam))
* sangoma (South Africa)

#### Coordinate terms

* medicine man, medicine woman

#### Derived terms

* witch-doctoring
* witch-doctory
* witch-doctress

#### Translations
### Further reading

* witch doctor on Wikipedia.Wikipedia